Why am I gaining weight rant

[Isthisthereallife]

I am short, obese and in my 40s. After realising I had put on 4.5 stone since my early thirties (and I weighed even less at points in my twenties) I set out to lose the weight. For 4 weeks I've been on 1200 calories and have been great at sticking to it. I am doing 6+ hours of proper exercise a week which means I am letting other important areas of my life slide and struggling to fit everything in. All of this is in the hope of losing 2 pounds per week so I'm not expecting miracles. Things have been going ok and I have been losing, but this week I seem to have put on at least a pound. It all feels like it's for nothing. I know it's only a pound, and I already knew that my metabolism is such that I have to eat a tiny amount in order to lose weight, but how the hell am I putting weight on when I have so much to lose, am sticking to a low cal diet, and doing more exercise than I've ever done?

It's probably muscle gain - muscle weighs more than fat, and you'll have gained some through exercising. Don't lose heart!

It might help you to take measurements of your waist, bust and hips. They will help give you a better overall picture than the scales alone.

What are you eating? Are you eating foods with high glycemic index? The one pound could just be water retention.

Drinking plenty of water helps.

Agree with the pp. about the muscle gain. Also, you need to be eating enough (and regularly), for your metabolism to fire up into 'burn' mode and out of 'store' mode.

I feel your pain OP. I have been dieting and exercising for 6 weeks now and my weight has stayed EXACTLY THE SAME. I realise that my body must be replacing every pound of fat lost with muscle, but it's difficult not to feel disheartened when the scale makes it look like nothing is happening and the hard work appears to be in vain.

I will say to you what I keep saying to myself. JUST KEEP GOING. You can do it!

Your metabolism may have slowed right down. Restricting calories will make your body go into starvation mode and you won’t be able to lose anymore weight. Dieting doesn’t work long term.

Google ‘why dieting doesn’t work’. All the experts agree. Intuitive eating is a much better way to be healthy.

Meant starvation/survival mode.

Like Nutty said it’s more than likely water retention is your period due? Many ladies retain water around that time.

I doubt very much it’s muscle gains ladies won’t gain muscle at a fast rate.

Definitely not muscle it can take a lady years to develop substantial gains.
Are you actually weighing out the food portions. Are you logging every single thing on mfp that will help you get the correct nutritional values.

*"It's probably muscle gain. Muscle weighs more than fat"
*
I'm sorry but this is a myth. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat.

I would suggest that you could be consuming more calories than you think. Do you track your food and weigh and record everything that you eat and drink? I recommend downloading myfitnesspal to do this.

I'd also take measurements as you could be losing inches as opposed to weight. My weight goes up and down throughout the month for a number of reasons due to water retention, time of the month etc.

There's also an enormous amount of knowledge and information on myfitnesspal too.

Good luck, I get how frustrating it is!

A pound of muscle weighs as much as a pound of fat, sure. But a square inch of muscle weighs more than a square inch of fat, so muscle DOES weigh more than fat.

It's more likely to be water than anything else. Even if it's muscle gain, because the sugars stored in your muscles need to be stored with water.

This is why 'weightloss' in itself is not much of a goal. Better to track inch loss (and even then it can fluctuate despite downward trend overall). Keep going. You wont stay as big as you are in this plan.